Sylvania Township Trustees Tuesday night voted to disperse $15,000 in funding to three community organizations.

Sylvania Area Family Services, Sylvania Community Action Team and the Sylvania Arts Commission will each receive money from the township's general fund. The township typically provides funding each year, to several agencies that relate to cultural and social services.

While the trustees vote unanimously to fund the three groups, they decided to hold off on funding a fourth group that submitted a proposal – the OSU Extension Office in Lucas County.

Trustee Kevin Haddad said he believed that funding the extension again would waste township money. Last year, the township funded the extension office for services that included gypsy-moth spraying and the analysis of insect pests for township property owners, but the service turned out to be underutilized by residents.

“We're not getting the service for it,” Mr. Haddad said. “They only had one call from the township...I'd like to have that removed and save us some money.”

Trustee president John Jennewine asked township administrator John Zeitler to follow up about the call volume from the office, before they choose not to fund it again.

Sylvania Area Family Services will receive $10,000, Sylvania Community Action Team will receive $3,000 and the Sylvania Arts Commission will receive $2,000.

Both family services and the community action team received the same amount this year that they were awarded last year, but the arts council will get $2,000 - a $1,000 less than last year.

Mr. Haddad wanted to decrease funding to the arts council down even further to $1,500, but Mr. Jennewine disagreed.

“I do think they are pretty active,” he said, adding that the commission works frequently with students. “We'll keep it at $2,000.”

The trustees plan to revisit the discussion of potentially funding the OSU Extension office at a future meeting.

Also approved during the meeting was the purchase of an annual membership to the Sylvania Area Chamber of Commerce, for $550; $8,925 in membership dues for the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments; and $6,000 for the Sylvania Area Community Improvement Corp. The township will be eligible to get $3,000 of the funding back from the CIC later in the year through a work program.

Contact Kelly McLendon at: kmclendon@theblade.com

or 419-206-0356 or on Twitter at @MyTownSylvania.

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